There were quite a few questions about Dan Persa going into his first collegiate start in Northwestern's home opener on Saturday night in Nashville.

Everyone knew that the Wildcats' new signal caller was a great athlete and the team's unquestioned leader. But would he be an accurate enough passer to lead the Wildcats' spread attack? Does he have enough poise to handle the pressure of being "the man"? And -- in an issue that never seemed to go away -- was he tall enough to be a Big Ten quarterback?

Persa answered all of those questions emphatically by completing an almost perfect 90 percent of his throws and accounting for 304 of the Wildcats' 365 yards of total offense.